If Michael wasn’t careful, this was all they were going to talk about. “It’s my mate’s phone.”
“That’s right. Theo told us you were mated. Congratulations. I assume you’re bringing her here since our missing sister has vanished.”
Michael swallowed. “I am.”
“What time does your flight get in?”
“We’re not flying.”
Ah … hell.
Just tell him. Scarlett’s voice in his head startled him and he turned around noticing for the first time her amber eyes open and regarding him.
“Did you decide you needed some kind of road trip?”
Every once in a while someone in the pack taught his brother some slang. Unlike the rest of them, Tristan had always been so serious; he’d never learned the vernacular that was used even during his own childhood. When he said things like “road trip”, it made the rest of them want to crack up. Not that they would, they just kind of silently snickered.
Michael often wondered if Tristan knew and that was why he did it.
Blinking, he finally spoke. “Something has happened, my Alpha.”
“We’re back to ‘My Alpha’ that must mean it’s a serious something. Tell me what it is.”
“When I got down here, I found the pack in total chaos. Nero had just died and two rival factions competed to take his space. One was worse than the other but they were both bad. My mate had been sorely abused.”
“Abused how?”
Looking up at the rearview mirror, he saw her face and she glanced down. Tell him.
He’ll be my Alpha, he should know.
“Physically and sexually. Scarlett was so beat up when I got here she could barely walk or speak.”
Staring at her now, since she’d shifted and found the magic that came with a wolf, she seemed better. Her bruises faded more every second.
Tristan growled. “Did you kill them?”
Adjusting the phone, he regarded Marvin. The other shifter did a good job of not making eye contact with him, as did the two wolves in the backseat. Even Scarlett acted as if she gave him privacy by not speaking aloud. He was more than cognizant of the fact that everyone in the car could hear Tristan as well as he could. There was no such thing as shifter privacy.
“I killed one after he attacked me. I beat the other one in a fight and sent him away.”
“I would have killed both of them.”
Michael knew this to be true. That’s why Tristan was Tristan and Michael was Michael.
“Anyway, I tried to teach the pack some of the right ways to behave. They really took to the lessons.”
Tristan laughed. “I’m not surprised. You taught me. No one understands Pack better than you. That’s why you’ll always be one of our top Alphas. Men follow you. You’re a born leader even though you have no interest in being supreme Alpha.”
“They’re all coming home with me. They insisted. They’re all swearing allegiance to you.”
Silence met him on the other end of the phone and he looked up to make eye contact with Scarlett again. She smiled at him in what he thought seemed like a reassuring manner.
“You explained what the situation is here?”
Michael closed his eyes. “More than once.”
“And they still wanted to come?”
“Yes.”
He heard Tristan’s footsteps in the background. Seconds later, he heard a door swing open and the sounds of outdoors filled the phone. “Then that’s fine. I’m always glad for more Pack.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Then why do you sound like you still want to vomit?”
There was no point in stalling. Inside of him, his wolf had laid down. Brother or no brother, phone or in person, Tristan was a forced to be reckoned with. Even over the phone, his power could make Michael’s wolf tremble from the magic he produced. “I haven’t told you how many there are.”
“How many?”
“Forty-five.”
He waited for Tristan’s explosion. Nothing but the sound of the Alpha’s breathing could be heard.
Finally, Michael’s younger brother spoke. “How far away are you?”
Studying the GPS in the car, Michael answered. “About fifteen hours.”
“Ashlee is going to freak out having to get everything ready, but we’ll make it happen.”
“You’re not going to comment on the number?”
Tristan laughed. “I’m overwhelmed. Once again, you have saved us.”
Michael blinked. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“Theo told you about Dad’s numbers. There was no way we stood a chance, but now that you found us more people who want to join us, we might.” Tristan’s voice had a tremor and Michael had to blink away his own tears. He turned his head, not that it helped, so the others in the car couldn’t see him.
“They have to be trained. They’re adults but they’ve no instruction—”
Tristan interrupted. “We’ll teach them.”
“They’re anxious to learn.”
“You always do this, Michael, you always come through for us when all hope is lost.”
Michael shook his head. “I don’t, my Alpha.” If anything, he was a constant failure.
“You held us together for thirty years while I floundered. You saved my life when I was cursed. You endured Dad’s wrath over and over again so I wouldn’t have to.”
“Tristan, I—”
His brother interrupted. “Call me when you’re an hour away.”
With that, his Alpha disconnected their conversation.
“He’s wonderful.”
Scarlett’s voice was warm water flowing over his body on a cold night. It was heaven.
“He is.”
“Mostly because he recognizes how good you were.”
Michael wasn’t sure what he’d ever done to deserve so many people loving him. He would take it, nonetheless.
* * * *
Standing in front of the dock waiting for the boat to come back and take the next group over to Westervelt, Michael pulled Scarlett up against him.
“You okay?”
She’d been quiet since they’d arrived. Of course, that might be because there was so much organizing to get the boat situation handled.
“I am. I need to tell you something.”
“Sure.”
She bit down on her lip. “You know how I can see things? How I can see a story that someone tells, if they’ve lived the story?”
“Yes.”
“I saw the day you ordered the witch killed.”
He raised his eyebrows and let go of her. Taking two steps toward the water he found that this time he was the one who couldn’t meet her gaze. So she knew the full extent of what he’d done. She’d seen with her eyes that he’d ordered the wretched woman killed and bled to save Tristan’s life.
Well, there was probably some kind of justice in it. His soft, gentle mate should know what he was capable of.
“I would do it again.” He knew his voice sounded more like a growl than a voice and he couldn’t control that.
“Your brother was dying. He was going slowly insane.”
He laughed, looking up at the sky. How to make her understand? “Thirty years ago while I was asleep in my bed, my father cursed the mated men to kill their spouses. They awoke and started butchering them. As soon as they’d done that, they’d snap out of it, realize what they’d done, and end their life. Some of them didn’t even wait for the ritual suicide. They just found a weapon and did the deed.”
Michael gasped as he stared at Scarlett whose eyes were huge. “Are you seeing this right now as I speak it?”